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Dom stood at the foot of the stairs. Andrei Vallois was their COO, but he’d started out as a security agent like the rest of them. Just six months ago, he’d married billionaire Lucas Vallois. After a bit of searching, they’d located a surrogate and started to build their own family.
“I know that! The appointment was an hour ago.”
Noah laughed. “Babe, it’s too early to know the sex of the baby.”
Rowe threw up his hands and stomped off, muttering something to himself before disappearing into his office.
Shaking his head, Dom climbed the stairs. As part of his usual routine, he paused in the second-floor kitchenette to make himself a cup of coffee with his favorite Mr. Rogers mug before wandering down to Rowe’s office. He peeked in and found the man pacing behind his desk with his cell phone to his ear. He raised his hand to knock when Rowe swore and tossed his phone down on his desk.
“Hey, Dom,” Rowe said, motioning for him to enter.
Rowan Ward was a strange man, but Dom respected the hell out of his boss. A former Army Ranger, Rowe had built the company up with a little help from his close friend Lucas, and it was now one of the premier security companies in the entire country. But it was more than Ward Security being on the cutting edge of surveillance and protection technology. Rowe had made the company into a close family. They were always there for each other, no matter what the cost or danger.
“You worried about the baby’s health, Boss?” Dom asked, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe.
“Nah. That baby has got Andrei’s genes. She’s gonna be a fighter. I just want to hear if Lucas lost his shit when he saw his baby for the first time.”
“She? You think it’s a girl?”
Rowe clapped his hands together and rubbed them like he was cooking up some wicked plot. “Oh, yeah. Lucas and Andrei would be clueless with a girl. Fate is gonna hand them a girl. I know it.”
Dom snorted. “You’re an evil man.”
“Lucas is the first of us to have a kid. It’s like we’re all pregnant with that poor woman.”
“Warn us when the cravings kick in. I have a jar of pickled eels I’ve been saving for a special occasion.”
Rowe gave him the strangest look before he shook his head, swore, and flopped down in the chair behind his desk. “You need something?”
“Just making sure I wasn’t rotated off Elrige because I fucked up.” The first thing he did every morning when he woke was to check the online schedule for security agents. Last-minute changes were a common occurrence, and they’d all learned to quickly adapt to support each other.
Rowe leaned forward, folding his hands on his desk. “Only in the way that we’ve gotten a serious influx of new business calling since your little window stunt started airing on the news and across the internet. I can’t hire fast enough to handle all the new clients.”
“That’s not a horrible problem to have.”
Huffing a laugh, Rowe pushed back and lounged in his chair. “No, not horrible. But I had Andrei rotate you off Elrige for a few days until the media attention dies down. Right now, you’re as conspicuous as he is. That doesn’t exactly help you do your job. I’ve got you working some of the self-defense classes and equipment maintenance.”
Dom nodded. He wasn’t surprised, but he’d wanted to check that all was cool. Last year he’d been pulled off the active duty roster due to an injury while trying to recover a client. It had taken him months to get back into the field. Now any scheduled time in the office rather than with a client left him feeling twitchy and restless.
With a final wave to his boss, Dom continued to stroll down the hall to the IT room that housed Quinn Lake, Jennifer Eccleston—aka Gidget—and the recently added Cole McCord. Rowe had knocked down one of the walls in that office and extended the space so that all three specialists could work in there. They claimed that they worked best in the same area. Dom wasn’t sure he agreed. It seemed like they spent a lot of time arguing with each other in techno gibberish only they understood.
Poking his head in, he found Quinn behind his desk, glaring at his screen through black-rimmed glasses. His dark hair was sticking up slightly, as if he’d been running his fingers through it. Quinn muttered something to himself and then followed it up with a clatter of lightning keystrokes. It seemed too early for him to be tackling a major problem, but then the IT team kept some strange hours along with the security agents.
“Problem with a case?” Dom asked as he stepped into the room.
Quinn jumped in his chair and swore. “Geez, Dom! Make some noise next time.” He straightened his glasses and relaxed in his chair again. “No, I’m helping Gidget set up some more servers in Switzerland, and I’m having trouble getting responses from the techs over there because all of Europe takes five freaking weeks of summer vacation! How is anyone supposed to get anything done?”
